Because of a hospital's error, Jennifer Spiegel became an involuntary wet nurse to another woman's newborn son. Now she is suing the hospital for its malpractice in providing her with the wrong baby to breastfeed.

Maternity ward staff at Evanston Hospital in a Chicago suburb quickly realized Spiegel's own baby was still in the nursery and took the baby she was inadvertently breastfeeding away from her. The mixup did not make her physically ill but she alleges it has caused her “permanent” emotional injury.

“The plaintiff, Jennifer Spiegel, never consented to breastfeed any baby other than her own baby,” she says in her complaint, which seeks at least $30,000 in damages.

Wet nurses, of course, have been around for centuries -- actress Salma Hayek recently served as one during a goodwill mission to Sierra Leone -– and some believe Spiegel is blowing her maternity mishap way out of proportion. “Why sue when you went home with a healthy baby (that was yours) and there was no harm done?” asks one Chicago Sun-Times reader.

But others are more sympathetic toward Spiegel, noting the intimacy of the bonding process between a mother and a newborn. “That new mother had not intended to share her precious milk with a stranger's child, had not intended an intimate interaction with a stranger's child,” says a contributor to a parenting advice blog.

Spiegel, 33, is represented by her husband Scott L. Spiegel, a personal injury attorney with the Law Office of Daniel E. Goodman in Park Ridge, Ill. She gave birth to their son Logan on Jan. 25, 2008 and the hospital, as required by its policy, fitted her and the baby with identity bracelets that matched the ID card on his bassinet.

At about 4 a.m. on Jan. 26, the suit says, a patient care technician (PCT) entered Spiegel's room, woke her up and handed her a baby boy from a bassinet. While she was breastfeeding the baby, a nurse walked in and informed her of the error.

“She said, 'The baby you're feeding isn't yours,'” Spiegel told the Sun-Times. “It was just an awful, internal feeling.”

The suit alleges the hospital was negligent in failing to check that the number on Spiegel's ID bracelet matched the number on the bracelet of the other woman's baby and in allowing “the unknown PCT to determine which babies needed to be fed [when] the Defendant knew or should have know that the unknown PCT was not qualified to make such a determination.”

Spiegel has said she didn't catch the mistake herself because it was dark in the room and the baby was swaddled up to his chin and wearing a cap. As a result of the alleged negligence, she “suffered mental and emotional anguish and pain, and will in the future suffer great pain, discomfort and emotional impairment, all of which said injuries are permanent,” the suit says.

The hospital could well be liable if it did not follow its ID bracelet procedure. The trickier issue is damages and Spiegel may need expert testimony about the mother-infant bonding process to make her case.

“In animals, they're often very specific -- mothers will only accept their own babies -- but I don't know that humans have any such characteristic,” a pediatrician told the Sun-Times.

While Spiegel's bonding with her child may have been impaired, her injury seems less severe than that of a Brooklyn, N.Y., woman who breastfed a baby that was not hers after giving birth in January 2009. Shaquana Brown –- whose lawsuit is set for trial in May –- spent an entire day with the child before Brookdale University Hospital staff realized their error.

The Spiegels have refused to say whether they met the parents of the boy who Jennifer mistakenly breastfed. That couple has not sued the hospital.

By Matthew Heller
2/23/10